Growing Up
by midnightquaffles
Summary: After years of feeling left out and playing pranks on her brothers, Megan apologizes to Drake while they're home alone.  Oneshot.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Drake & Josh.

_It wasn't fair_, I thought whenever I planned another way to make Drake and Josh's lives miserable. Although I would never admit it to anyone, the only reason I've been playing pranks on them all these years is so they wouldn't forget about me. I mean, ever since our mom married Josh's dad, Drake hardly ever acknowledges my existence. Now that he had Josh, Drake didn't need me. Drake had Josh, and mom had Josh's dad. That just left me out in the cold, trying to find my place in this new family.

Sometimes I wish that life could still be like old times, before mom got remarried. My real dad died when I was really little, so I couldn't even remember him, but that was okay because Drake was sort of like a substitute father. He always gave me piggyback rides, read me bedtime stories, and even played Barbie dolls with me once in a while when he had nothing better to do. I used to think Drake was the coolest guy ever because he was so nice and funny. Even when things got hard, like the time mom lost her second job, Drake could always put a smile on my face and make everything seem alright.

Then, as Drake got older, things started to change. He spent more time hanging out with his friends instead of playing with me. And then he convinced mom to buy him a guitar, leading to him forming a band and being too busy to hang out with me.

And then the worse of it all happened: Our mom married Josh's dad. I know I should be happy for my mom for finding another man she can share the rest of her life with, but I still can't help being a little bit angry at her. After all, she didn't even ask me or Drake if we wanted a new father. She just showed up with this man and announced that they got married. I didn't even get to see the wedding. Suddenly, my mom didn't have to work so much, I had to get used to calling Mr. Nichols "Dad", and I was replaced by his son, Josh.

At first, I wanted to play the pranks on Mr. Nichols-- I mean Dad to get him and Josh to leave, but then I realized that it would break mom's heart if he left her because of me. So I decided to play pranks on Drake and Josh, hoping that it would turn them against each other so Drake would come crawling back to me, his real sibling. But that never worked and eventually I just started pranking them for personal entertainment and to see how long I could keep this up without getting caught. It sort of became a game to me.

There was an actual point to the game, though, and I could never forget it. The real point to the game was to stay a part of this new family. While Drake and Josh still believe that I planted camera's all over the house to make sure they could never get revenge on me, the true reason for it is that spying on everyone is the only way I can know what's going on in their lives. Nobody ever tells me anything around here; It's up to me to figure it out for myself.

Of course, there is a down-side to all of this pranking and spying... Every time I hear Drake call me "an evil, twisted little girl," my insides writhe and I feel terrible. He may now know it, but this whole pranking thing started just to grab his attention (although I'm not the attention-begging type) and now he hates me for it. What's even worse is that in spite of all I've done to him, Josh is actually nicer to me than Drake is. That scares me. I mean, every time I prank him, he says I'm evil and acts like Drake, but then his eyes give me a weird look, like he can see right through me and is just playing along. I'm afraid that since he can see through me and is nicer to me, that means that maybe someday I'll be closer to him than to Drake. And if that really did happen, Drake probably wouldn't care at all. That's what scares me the most; Drake not caring about me. I guess that's why I keep pranking him, to get him to care where I am and what I'm doing.

You see, the reason I'm thinking all of this over is because last week, something incredibly amazing happened. Drake and Josh proved to me that my boyfriend Cory was cheating on me. I didn't believe them at first because they already tried to ruin our relationship once, but they somehow got Cory's other girlfriend to come to the theater to show me what a jerk Cory really is. I can't tell you how devastated I was to learn that the guy I thought I had maybe fallen in love with was a loser, but it was nice that Drake and Josh looked out for me. Josh actually looked like he wanted to hug me for a moment, but then he and Drake put on a cool macho act and wanted to beat up Cory. My now ex-boyfriend was unfortunately an expert in martial arts and beat my brother's up instead, but it was still sweet that Drake and Josh would do that for me. And to think after all these years of pulling pranks to get his attention, one day of just being a normal girl got Drake to go back to being the cool, nice big brother I know and love.

This leads me to where I am now; outside Drake's door, waiting to gain enough courage to knock on the door. I had already thanked both him and Josh for what they did-- I even kissed them on the cheek-- but I figured I owed it to Drake to apologize pranking him all these years. I decided not to apologize to Josh since he kind of already had me figured out, while Drake still didn't have a clue.

So I knocked on the door and waited for permission to enter. Once Drake said it was okay, I slowly opened the door and walked inside to see Drake on his bed, with his guitar.

"Megan?" Drake said surprised, "You never knock."

"I-I want to talk to you," I stammered as I realized how quiet the house was since Josh was at the Magic Palace and mom and dad went out for dinner, leaving me alone with Drake.

"Oh, Megan, if this is about your hamster, I'm sure it's just stunned... and if it's not, it's all Josh's fault! I told him not to take another pic--"

"This isn't about the hamster!" I interrupted.

"If you don't want to kill me, then why are you here?" he asked.

I just stared at him, chickening out of my original plan.

He sighed, "Forget it. Just tell me what you want or leave me alone."

"I-I just want to talk to you..." my voice trailed off as my eyes searched his room, looking for a topic to talk to Drake about. My eyes finally fell upon an old photo of our father that was lying on Drake's desk.

I grabbed the picture and climbed onto Drake's bed so that I was sitting beside him.

"What was daddy like?" I asked him. I knew it was a childish question, but I haven't asked that in a long time and I always loved hearing people describe him. Mom never spoke about him too much, so I've mostly relied on Drake to inform me of what he was like.

Drake looked surprised at my request and for a minute, I thought he wouldn't answer me. Then he put his guitar down and said, "I've told you what he was like before. Why do you want to know again?"

I shrugged innocently, looking down at the photograph that pictured a handsome, dark-haired man, sitting outside on a blanket next to a picnic basket.

Drake backed away from me a little and said suspectingly, "Oh, no. You're acting innocent, but you aren't fooling me, Megan! I know what a devious, twisted mind you have... you're planning something, aren't you?"

I sighed and told him, "Alright, you caught me. I'm not here to ask you about dad. I really came here to..." I took a dramatic pause just to humor him before becoming serious, "... apologize to you for all the mean stuff I did."

Drake looked at me skeptically and asked, "Who are you and what did you do with my little sister?"

"Drake, I'm serious!" I exclaimed.

He put his hand to my forehead, saying, "You don't feel sick, yet you must be sick... Did you hit your head or something?"

At this point I was on the verge of tears. And that was really saying something since I, Megan Parker, never cried in a room by myself, let alone in front of my older brother. Here I was, trying to apologize and he thinks I'm delusional.

Upon seeing the look on my face, Drake whispered, "Oh my God, you're serious, aren't you?"

I nodded. "Yeah, you were really nice to me the other day with the whole Cory situation, and I was thinking about how mean I've been to you and Josh by playing all those pranks and getting you in trouble..." I took a deep breath as I realized that I was rambling and said a sincere, "I'm sorry. I don't blame you for hating me."

I made to leave, thinking that this was a waste of time and breath and I should put a bunch of spiders in his bed that night as revenge for not trusting me, but Drake stopped me by grabbing my arm and pulling me close to him.

"Megan, I don't hate you. I've been scared, annoyed, and pretty pissed off at you, but I have never hated you. Why'd you think I did?" he said.

I shrugged and told him, "'Cause of all the stuff I did."

Drake sighed, put his arm around me and said, "Look, Megan, I already told you I don't hate you, but I can't help but being upset with you. We used to be so close when we were younger... what happened, Megs?"

"You're asking me what happened?" I asked, going back to being my usual, defensive self, "You're the one that replaced me."

Drake looked at me in confusion and asked, "What are you talking about? I've never replaced you."

"Yeah, you have... Ever since Josh moved in, you two have been best friends and have done everything together," I said, accusingly.

"Megan... do you even remember when Josh and Walter moved in? I didn't want to share my room with him; I didn't even want to know him, especially not in school, but it was because mom made us that we became such good friends. I didn't become friends with him on purpose, it just happened."

"Whatever," I sighed as I tried to leave again, but Drake once again pulled me back.

"Hey, wait a minute," he said,"What do you have against Josh, anyway? He's a good guy. A little weird, nerdy, and has an oddly shaped head, but he's a good guy."

"Yeah, I know, but..." I struggled to find the right words, "He's not my real brother."

"You've never even given him a chance," Drake reasoned.

"I don't want to!" I told him, "Sometimes I just... I just want things to be the way they used to be before mom got remarried."

Drake hugged me and said, "Megs, things are never gonna be like they were before, but that doesn't mean you have to make things worse by playing all those pranks on me and Josh. If you felt left out, why didn't you just ask if you could hang out with us?"

"Like the time I asked you if I could help you guys win that salsa contest and you wouldn't let me?"

"Oh, yeah... well maybe if you weren't so mean to us, we would have let you," he said defensively.

"No you wouldn't have... you never let me hang out with you anymore."

"Well... what about the time I took you to the Premiere?" he asked.

"You only took me because you were jealous of Josh's friend Drew," I replied.

Drake sighed and I could tell that I was making him feel bad. Usually that gave me a sense of satisfaction, but not this time. I was glad when Drake broke the silence by softly saying, "I'm sorry, too. I guess I haven't really spent much time with you since Walter and Josh moved in," he glanced at his watch, "I'd suggest that maybe we could do something now, but it's getting late. You should probably go to bed before everyone else gets home."

I nodded, and looked down at the photo of our father I was still holding. Drake saw me staring at it and told me that I could keep it if I wanted. I already had several pictures of my dad and Drake knew it, so I asked him why he would give it to me.

He shrugged and said, "I can remember dad and you can't. You've always loved that picture a lot more than I have anyway."

I hugged him in thanks before climbing off his bed and walking to the door. Just as my hand touched the doorknob, Drake called me back. I spun around to face him and he asked, "Does this mean you won't be evil to me or Josh anymore?"

I laughed and said, "That depends on whether or not you give me a reason to act evil."

Drake rolled his eyes and said, "We've never given you a reason before..."

I glared at him.

"... Or at least not a reason that either of us were aware of," he added.

"Fine, I won't prank you guys again unless I absolutely feel it's necessary. That better?"

Drake thought about it, "Okay, but apologize to Josh and give the guy a break. He's your brother, too, you know."

"Awww... do I have to?" I asked him.

"Yeah, and if you do, I promise we'll hang out more. Deal?"

"Deal," I agreed while walking back to his bed and shaking his hand to make it official.

I hugged him and murmured, "I love you, Drake."

"Love you too, Megs," he said in reply before cracking up.

"What's so funny?" I asked him.

"Can you imagine the look on Josh's face if he walked in and saw us hugging?"

I laughed with him and said, "I got an idea. Move over."

I crawled back onto his bed and under the covers. Catching on, Drake set his guitar on the floor, turned off the light and joined me.

"I can't wait to see the look on Josh's face," Drake whispered.

"He should be home soon; pretend to be asleep," I quietly told him.

For a few minutes, we laid in silence. Then, Drake said, "This is boring," and began to tickle me. I tried to shriek at him to knock it off, but I was laughing so hard that I couldn't get the words out. I tried to escape from his attack, but all I ended up doing was kicking the quilt off the bed. I was aching from all the laughter, but Drake refused to relent until he heard the sound of a car engine in the driveway.

He quickly grabbed the fallen quilt, laid down next to me, covered us both with the quilt and threw an arm around me. We both pretended to be asleep.

Smiling in my "sleep", I knew things between Drake and I would never be like they were before mom got remarried. Too many things have changed for that to happen. But maybe with a couple more changes, I hoped things could be better. I wouldn't have fun tormenting Drake and Josh by myself anymore, but maybe I could be friends with them so I wouldn't be the one left out. And I suppose I'll always wonder what my real dad was like, but I guess I'm also lucky that Walter makes my mom so happy. This strange, new family formed about four years ago, and now maybe it was time for me to grow up and be a part of it.

THE END

**Author's Note:** Reviews would be appreciated.


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